#some people are misinformed but have their heart on the right place

[embervoices]

A very useful thread on Bluesky:

(There is a lot more. Rather than give you all the images, I've copied the full text below.)

Meredith Rose‬ ‪@mrose.ink‬ November 8, 2024

This is not going to be a repeat of 2016-2020. It will be better, it will be worse, but most of all it will be different. Here are things I want every single person to keep in mind as we head into round 2 of a Trump admin.

My credentials: I’m a queer female public interest attorney working on tech policy in DC. I’ve been doing this for a decade--longer than some, not as long as others. I had to navigate three different administrations, as well as Congress, regulatory agencies, courts, and the advocacy world.

FIRST: don’t let despair override your media literacy.

The left has grifters, just like every other movement. If you’re able and compelled to donate, give to orgs with established track records. Avoid giving to individuals, especially anyone who emerges overnight with a one-weird-trick “plan.”

The left is not immune to misinformation, and everyone—EVERYONE—falls for it sometimes, present company included. There is no shame in it. When (not if) it happens to you, you should acknowledge it; delete or retract the post to reduce the spread; and move on.

If a source consistently shares half-truths or outright misinformation, it is not trustworthy, no matter how much “their heart is in the right place.” Unfollow and move on.

Prediction, analysis, and reporting are three fundamentally different things. Learn to identify them for what they are. Reject attempts by amateur “analysts” to predict the future. They know as much as you do.

Real subject matter experts know and acknowledge their limits. They’re also (usually) hesitant to try and predict the future. The best frame their predictions in terms of a range of possible outcomes. Subject matter experts may also disagree with one another! It happens!

SECOND: What we know for sure about how the Trump, how he operates, and how that will impact the next four years.

Trump is a narcissist who avoids reading and doesn’t care about details. He cannot be persuaded by argument or logic; he’s moved mostly by flattery, and will agree with the last person who flattered him. He can and will upend his own administration’s work without warning, often by tweet.

As a result, most policy experts—even those "on his side"—dread him taking an interest in their field. Ask any Republican staffer who worked in Congress during the last administration, and most of them will confirm that their greatest fear was Trump tweeting about anything related to their work.

As such, people who are serious about their work will do everything to make it as invisible and boring-seeming as possible. This is the policy equivalent of defensive camouflage. Lots of “normie” work will continue in silence. (The lion’s share of tech policy ends up in this bucket.)

If you have a niche issue that you care about, now is a great time to donate to orgs that work on it. Lots of money will be funneled to big legacy orgs working on headline issues: ACLU, climate change orgs, etc. Consider sending your donations where they matter most: local, niche, established.

Trump runs his cabinet like the Apprentice. He thrives on chaos and making people compete for his approval. Not only does he not reward collaboration between his subordinates, he actively undermines it.

Moreover, everyone who works with him knows that they’re vulnerable to being thrown under the bus at a moment’s notice, for any reason (or for no reason at all). His cabinet is going to be scorpions in a bottle. They will not be able to coordinate, for good or ill.

One scorpion can still do a lot of horrific damage. But large scale inter-agency coordination is unlikely, particularly after the first few months, by which point he will likely (prediction warning!) have gone through a handful of cabinet secretaries already.

FINALLY: The view from inside civil society heading into 2025.

In 2016, Trump was a largely unknown quantity. The left and establishment right alike wasted a lot of time trying to read tea leaves and make sense of this guy, because he was completely outside the realm of what anyone had dealt with. That’s not happening now.

He did us a favor by broadcasting his plans in advance (aka Project 2025). Civil society has spent the last 2.5 years strategizing around it. We’re not starting off flat-footed.

The Biden admin did a good amount to future-proof its own achievements. Folks can speak to their own areas of expertise, but clean energy and CHIPS and Science Act (investing in domestic semiconductor production) have benefitted from huge sunk investments. That money’s not getting clawed back.

OVERALL TAKE-AWAYS:

It's going to suck. But civil society and the political left have some advantages we didn't have last time. We know him, we know his angles, and we know who he's bringing in--none of which we had in 2016.

We'll get through this. It will be grim, but we'll get through it.

John Cutting‬ ‪@johncutting.bsky.social‬

Thanks Meredith. I really valued your analysis over the past few years, and I think this is a reasonable, actionable framework to think about the upcoming storm

Meredith Rose‬ ‪@mrose.ink‬

I really cannot overstate how much time was (necessarily) wasted in 2017 trying to figure out this guy and his influences. The fact that he's not only a known quantity, but ran the most over-studied administration in this nation's recent history, makes this a very different game.

John Cutting‬ ‪@johncutting.bsky.social‬

I bet we can weaponize his narcissism. Let's say some ghoul starts making progress with a mass deportation effort, if we start calling that ghoul that "shadow president" en masse, Trump would fire him in right away and appoint Hulk Hogan or something

‪Meredith Rose‬ ‪@mrose.ink‬

This is exactly why I don't think Musk will last very long. Trump is very clear that he's the only one in the room allowed to have an ego or any kind of brand name.

[omgthatdress]

The Importance of Studying Queerness in Context.

When studying queer history, one always has to keep in mind two seemingly contradictory things: firstly, that queerness and queer people have always existed, but at the same time, that queerness and queer identities have not always existed the way they exist today.

Modern queer terms and identities did not exist to queer people in the past. They would not have thought of themselves as "gay" or "trans" or even "queer." While these modern terms may seem to fit certain historic individuals, these individuals would not have thought of themselves as such, and it would not be a part of their lived experience. To apply the modern identities of queerness to history is to erase the lives and experiences of queer people in history, and care must always be taken to understand queer history within the context of its time.

When looking at queer history online, there is a *lot* of misinformation and misidentification out there simply because people are eager to apply modern queerness to history, often in places where it doesn't belong.

A lot of old photos get misidentified as gay because they show two people of the same sex showing some level of physical affection towards each other. Okay, I'll admit that the open-mouth kissing photobooth pictures are probably actually gay, but an old picture of two men or two women holding hands or with their arms around each other, or even kissing on the cheek, were common shows of platonic affection.

I hate to break everyone's gay little hearts, but without explicit documentation saying so, assuming that these couples are all gay is putting modern queer identity in places where it simply didn't exist. The women in the final picture are sisters. The "not married" boys are bachelors interested in marrying women.

In the silent film Wings, the emotional climax of the film comes in the form of a kiss exchanged between the characters played by Jack Powell and David Armstrong. It often gets attributed as the first gay kiss in cinema history, even on the fucking YouTube clip I found:

Except it isn't gay. The two men spend the whole film fighting over who gets to be Clara Bow's boyfriend. When Richard Arlen's character is fatally wounded, his dear friend rushes to his side and kisses him goodbye, because in the 1920s, that was considered the ultimate show of friendship. The movie ends with Jack Powell falling in love with Clara Bow.

Similarly, a kiss shared between Lillian and Dorothy Gish in the 1921 movie Orphans of the Storm often gets attributed as being queer, but it wasn't.

They were sisters playing sisters. None of this was considered unusual.

Pooh-poohing on all of these images that so many people on the internet breathlessly and joyously laud as proud gay history isn't fun. It makes me feel like I'm fucking Ben Shapiro. But if misinformation is allowed to flourish, it allows people like Ben Shapiro to come in and make the argument that queerness is a modern invention and queer people didn't exist in the past.

Everyone loves to see queerness represented in history, but the fact is that none of the stuff in this post would have been seen as explicitly gay and thus shouldn't be called gay today. If we are to understand queer history in its fullness and richness, it is absolutely crucial that we get it right. We owe it to our queer ancestors to recognize, honor, and not embellish the actual lives they lived.

[crumb-crumblet-s-crumbington]

yooooo!!! you’re my favorite ethan winters artist i just wanna say that first and foremost, thank you for the wholesome content of my comfort character and father figure 🥹🫶

i’m really curious bc i feel like i see a lot of people against mithan (not me personally, i’m p neutral on them!) but i’m curious to know all your thoughts on them! thoughts on their canon relationship, their fanon portrayal, the backlash against them/mia accusations, and your headcanons? i’m just really interested!!! hopefully that’s not weird :”)

have a good day!! sparkle on!!! ✨💖

i heart mithan... i think that they can be so cute...

i personally hc them t4t and i like to think that the dated in highschool before they both had fully transitioned

mia likes to bake and ethan likes to scrap book and he always likes to take pictures of mias cakes/ baked goods and has a album for them 😭

i am a multishipper so i draw a lot of ethan ships so my girl is left out sometimes and im sorry mia 😔

i actually really like their relationship, its a really complex dynamic that i like to talk about with my friends

i think the issue is that when talking about mithan or mia in general, theres just SO MUCH misinformation that its honestly a pain the butt to talk about

people still think that she was responsible for the creation of eveline, people still think that she experimented on eveline, people still use examples of her attacking ethan as if she did it on her own will instead of being mind controlled

in reality she was just someone who oversaw the transportation of evie. im not excusing her or anything because obviously she knew what she was doing, but people really try to accuse her of doing something she didnt and it bothers me alot lol

the problem with the fandom is that people either try to water her down to girlboss who did nothing wrong and fail to acknowledge the complexity/ moral grayness of her character and the other side is misogynists 😭😭😭😭

its hard to talk about her without people either going "stop trying to villainize her and make her look bad!" or people ACTUALLY villainizing her and acting like heisenberg would have treated him better 😭😭

mithan is such a sad relationship because they loved each other so much and that ended up being the reason their relationship fell apart (sort of... its not like the broke up... ethan kinda just straight up died)

i get a lot a trouble for saying this, but mia is a selfish person.

its not a bad thing! well i mean it is but it doesnt make her some evil witch who is somehow worse than the guy how made a werewolf american ninja warrior. its just a major character flaw she has! which is good! mia being a flawed person who makes mistakes and morally gray decisions make her a more interesting person!

she is selfish in the way that she wants to keep her family with her no matter the cost. even if it means lying to ethan about her job so that he wont think different of her. here is a interrogation from the re7 DLC, which is easy to miss!

she isnt necessarily trying to apologize for the things she has done, she is more of a, "u wont need to forgive me in the first place if we just forget it all and move on"

she doesn't try to redeem herself for what she has done, she tries to move on and return to the normal life that she wants so bad. which is fine! everyone copes a different way and she has to right to move on from her trauma. the problem that lies in this is that she has a shared trauma with ethan who still has no idea what went on in dulvey and still effects him till the present (he is mold! this is a important thing to know! most people would want to know if they were a walking corpse)

she played a direct part in what happened in dulvey, and im not referring to the email, she did not send that. she never wanted ethan to come in the first place. she tried her best to send a video to him, begging him to forget about her because she wanted to protect him, BUT it didnt send.

he got involved because she was involved. its honestly a series of really really unfortunate events.

THOUGH! she did know what she was getting into. im tired of seeing the narrative that mia was innocent and didnt know what was going on or was simply a bystander. she knew what she was doing, she knew eveline was a bioweapon, she knew eveline was a child. she used a MACHINE GUN! she knows how to use weapons and was obviously trained for it.

she tried her best to keep everybody out of the mess, ex: warning the bakers not to take them in, warning ethan not to find her, sacrificing herself for ethan in the later half of re7

but again, those are the consequences of HER actions

her consequences just happen to get really big and end up hitting ethan on the head like a metal sheet 😭

their relationship is really so interesting, it makes me really sad to think about sometimes 😭they both went through something that nobody else would ever understand, in the end they really only have each other. they get moved to an entire different country and the dulvey incident gets covered up with a "gas leak"

its really tragic because their marriage definitely had some flaws and bumps. and i know im repeating myself but its because people always take this in the worst way possible but just because i say their relationship was rocky doesnt mean im saying they dont love each other!!! thats the entire basis of mias character!! saying she doesnt love ethan would destroy her entire character!

you can see in the re8 DLC how fondly ethan talks about mia! he loves her so much, though im not sure if his comments in the DLC are him narrating current (post re8) or his thoughts before everything went down and he died (pre re8)

everything mia did was because she LOVED ethan. she would never do anything to intentionally hurt him, she is not a cruel person. she hides the truth of her job from ethan pre re7 because she loves him and doesnt want her job to drive them apart. she CONTINUES to refuse to tell ethan the truth post re7 because she wants to move on a live a happy normal life with him and knows something like her being directly associated with the connections would probably cause (more) problems. she refuses to tell ethan that he is mold because again, hard to live a happy marriage with your husband after you tell him hes a bioweapon.

obviously i dont think it was right that she did this, thats what makes her selfish! she did it for herself! she did it for her family! she thought it would work out, she thought that they could move on and be happy together.

the issue is that ethan didnt want to forget. he wanted to know what happened, he wanted to know the part mia played, he wanted answers! which is reasonable! he knows to some extent that mia was partially responsible for his involvement and he was always suspcious that mia was lying to him about her job which is implied when mia says "you were right, i did lie to you"

she doesnt learn, she doesnt stop lying, her lies get bigger and worse and it sucks yeah but it makes her so interesting!!! she keeps doing stupid things under the idea that this is whats best for her and her family, that if she hides this everything will work out and it will be for the better but its not!

just because telling your husband hes dead and a bioweapon is a hard subject to bring up doesnt mean you DONT bring it up. people shouldnt use that as a reason to excuse mia 😭, its a very bad excuse and honestly highlights how horrible their communication skills were. you cant just not tell your husband that he is actually infected with the mold and not tell him for the tree years between post re7 and pre re8.

im not saying these things to put mia down, or try and villanize her. these are all just actual things her character does! she isnt evil, but she isnt a knight in shining armor either. we need to be able to have talks about complex characters without crying everytime someone points out a flaw. characters have flaws! and mia just happens to have a lot of them!

im not mad at her, i dont dislike her because i think this way of her. shes a fictional character! you can like characters that are morally gray, or villains that drink blood and make corpse soldiers. they are fictional! pointing out the flaws of a character does not mean i dont like them.

i wouldnt call her "the real villain of re8" but i wouldnt treat her like a damsel in distress either. she is a competent person, she knows what shes doing, she has her reasons for doing them. she made bad descions with good intentions behind them! they can coexist and we should let them!

i like mithan! its a complex relationship because they both love each other so much but hurt each other in the process

talking about them is just a pain in the butt because talking about mia is a pain in the butt lol

i really hate how she keeps getting sidelined, its super frustrating to see mia get put in a cage in every game 😭

its even more frustrating that mia straight up just disappears???? in the shadows of rose DLC... like she just stops taking care of rose and theres nothing said about it. no reason or explanation. i dont think mia would ever ditch rosemary because she didnt care about her, but we probably will never know because capcom sucks at writing and they probably forgot the mia ever even existed.

all in all, i think the fandom is really just full of misinformation which make people either think mia is some horrible evil person, or its full of people who think that saying mia messed up is the equivalent of comparing her to wesker lol.

i really love mia, shes a incredibly fun and complex character, its just hard to enjoy her sometimes with the people in the fandom haha.

also ive got no idea what u meant by "the backlash against them/mia accusations" so sorry if i didnt answer that!

thank u for the ask! sorry for the long response!

[dr-spectre]

I saw this really great thread on twitter by Grungygrim and it definitely highlights my thoughts and frustrations with the story of these games and the Splatoon fandom as a whole. (be forewarned, i get really tilted in this blog post fyi.)

I made a blog post about 2 weeks ago where i said that i was happy that the narrative online that "Callie is an idiot who got kidnapped and then brainwashed/mind controlled against her consent" is going away. (Here's the link: https://www.tumblr.com/dr-spectre/749710338672525312/im-so-happy-that-the-narrative-online-that?source=share)

Unfortunately I'm gonna have to retract a lot of the stuff i said. I'm still seeing, TILL THIS DAY THAT NARRATIVE ONLINE! IM STILL SEEING SO MUCH MISINFORMATION AND IT MAKES ME REALLYYYY ANGRYYYY!!! As a big fan of Callie, people completely outright ignoring her character arc THAT WAS SET UP SINCE SPLATOON 1 BY THE WAY!!! and not even bothering to look at outside sources for more information and lore genuinely pisses me the fuck off to no end.

No, hypnosis is NOT MIND CONTROL/BRAINWASHING! I DONT WANNA KEEP REPEATING IT! YOU CAN LOOK IT UP! if a person is genuinely uncomfortable and doesn't wish to take the suggestions to heart while hypnotized, THEY WONT DO SO! THEY STILL HAVE CONTROL! Yes, Marie did say "kidnapped" in some of her dialogue, but from her perspective, OF COURSE SHE'S GONNA THINK CALLIE GOT KIDNAPPED! She's known to worry about Callie all the time and ruminate about her, of course she's gonna think of the worst case scenario, doesn't mean she's right though. Was Octavio still in the wrong for hypnotizing Callie in the first place and allowing her to bring out her darker traits more easily? YEAH! NO SHIT! HE'S A BAD DUDE! Not a totally evil person but he has made some awful decisions out of desperation for his people. Why do you think he was so quick to help out the New Squidbeak Splatoon in the finale of Splatoon 3? His people got turned into fluffy monsters by a giant bear, he's all about helping his people.

Hell look at how Callie acts while under the Hypnoshades, she decorates Octo Canyon and her peppy and energetic self is still in tact even during the final boss, she's just more mean and violent. Callie was in an emotional and mentally unwell situation due to her overworking herself and being incredibly lonely as her relationship with Marie was damaged overtime. Callie accepted the suggestions of DJ Octavio and heard him out, AS SAID BY HER FROM THE RELATIONSHIP CHART! She wasn't forced into anything. She didn't suffer "sexual abuse" from Octavio by being forced into skippy clothing as some psychos say online, if she didn't want to wear that outfit she wouldn't cause hypnosis is NOT MIND CONTROL!! I hate having to repeat this over and over again, i hate how the developers basically rushed and ruined this interesting villain arc with stupid shades, only to try and hastily fix it later with an obscure post about A GOD DAMN RELATIONSHIP CHART THAT PEOPLE EITHER DONT KNOW ABOUT OR DONT CARE TO LOOK AT BECAUSE THEY SEE SPLATOON AS SOMETHING FOR KIDS AND TO NOT GIVE ANY CARE TOWARDS!!!!!!!!

I made a god damn giant blog explaining Callie in Splatoon 2 because i felt so frustrated about how my favorite character in the series was being treated and i tried to salvage the story that the writers tried to make. The way that people made her situation worse by saying she got kidnapped and forcibly ""mind controlled/brainwashed"" actually gave me chest pain, thinking about that kind of scenario for Callie actually hurts me... Heck i cant even listen to the Splatoon 2 stage music or final boss music because hearing her reversed vocals makes me feel uncomfortable due to the misinformation online. I hated all the misinformation and i wanted it to stop. HELL EVEN IN GIANT TIMELINE VIDEOS WHERE PEOPLE DO TONS OF RESEARCH THEY STILL GET IT WRONG!! UGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! i guess it'll still be the common and popular notion that Callie is an idiot that got kidnapped and then ""mind controlled"" by some shades... oh well... ugh...

I'm sorry if I'm coming off as really angry, i am. It's just, my brain is really hyperfixated on this squid and she means a lot to me. Seeing the way the fandom as well as the writers treat her makes me really mad. I hope i can find some peeps who feel the same way as i do. Misinformation is so frustrating man... i dont even wanna get into the Octarians because that's a whole other can of worms... anyways im done ranting. have a good night or good morning wherever you live y'all.

[starcurtain]

A Very Rambling Rant about Alhaitham and Aranara

Sigh. Everyone on twitter is all excited over this idea that Alhaitham can see aranara, and I don't mean to be downer but like... I kind of hate this. Not the idea of Alhaitham seeing aranara, which is very cute, very nice, yes, but more the way this kind of thing unfolds.

It's a classic example of unconfirmed material, extraneous to the actual game, getting put out on social media like it's canon: Someone tweets "ALHAITHAM CAN SEE ARANARA!!" and suddenly it's running rampant in the fandom and people are completely convinced it's canonically true, without the actual game or any confirmed story-relevant materials genuinely supporting the idea. This is exactly how misinformation gets spread. (I'm looking at you, "Jade enslaved Aventurine" Star Rail fandom brainrot.)

And it's this "bandwagon canon" that leads to constant issues in the fandom when people point out that even some widely accepted stuff is actually fanon. People are literally vicious over defending things that don't actually have any evidence in the game itself.

I really wish this fandom was better at distinguishing "This thing is factually true" and "This is a really cool idea and there might be a few hints for it! I'm going to make this my headcanon!" Watching stuff in fandom go un-fact-checked genuinely makes me terrified for people's ability to fact check real world issues sometimes!

Not to mention the way this conversation is happening is just really unpleasant too?

I saw multiple tweets with thousands of likes going around saying things like "Of course Alhaitham can still see the aranara; he has child-like wonder while Kaveh is traumatized and had to grow up too fast, so it makes sense he can't see them."

Which like... This is so gross to me? Are these people just missing the massive unfortunate implications of their own words--the idea that traumatized people can't experience wonder for the world anymore? That they're somehow broken and can't experience any child-like joy??? It's a deeply unpleasant take to me.

And not only that, it directly contradicts actual canon, because Yoimiya's entire second story quest was about a girl going through a traumatic illness that confined her to a wheelchair and led to her experiencing guilt and depression--and about helping her to see that everything that made life worth living was still there for her, and that she had never lost her wonder or will to live in the first place.

And the whole thing just smacks of a fundamental misunderstanding of why adults can't see the aranara in the first place. It's not because there's some sort of magical "You must be 18 or younger to see aranara" rule. It's because the aranara themselves choose not to be seen by adults. They protect themselves by making themselves invisible. They're not invisible by nature! Everyone can see them--when the aranara want to be seen. Conversely, this means that adults with "childlike wonder" are not just automatically seeing aranara left and right. No matter how happy and childish at heart an adult is, they will only see an aranara if the aranara personally trust them and want to be seen.

The aranara trust children because children are generally good-hearted (and also probably easy to escape from), so there is usually no need to keep themselves invisible to children, but even among children, they are invisible until they choose to be seen. (I think everyone forgot the quest where you find the child who was kidnapped by the Fatui in the forest, saved by an aranara who chose to reveal itself to her, but then she refuses to go back to the village, so you leave her at the aranara nursery--only the aranara there at the nursery choose not to reveal themselves to her because they don't know her yet.) Even with children, aranara don't just go running up on them--they're incredibly cautious creatures who only show themselves after they're sure they'll be safe. They distrust adults because adults deliberately use "growing up" as an excuse to abandon simplicity, kindness, and gentleness in order to embrace concepts that include getting ahead of others and seeking profit--two things which could be particularly dangerous for a vulnerable forest fairy population.

There's also an extremely complicated intersection between the aranara and memory, as they represent and upon "death" return to being the forest's living memory itself. Avin, the girl in Yoimiya's story quest, is a child--but still loses the ability to visit her aranara companion because her illness keeps her away from the forest so long that she simply forgets her aranara buddy ever existed. Even aranara who would love to continue playing with their human companions find themselves forgotten over and over again, because they simply don't linger in human memory well. It's a giant metaphor for how fleeting and temporary human existence is in comparison to the natural world! It's a metaphorrrrrrr.

(There's also the fact that aranara freely move between reality and dreaming--something which Sumeru's adult population only recently regained the ability to even do.)

And like... does no one remember that Yoimiya could only see the aranara because Traveler was there to introduce her to them? She doesn't just automatically see them even though she has all the childish wonder possible in her heart.

I even saw tweets saying that anyone who thinks Alhaitham doesn't have child-like wonder in his heart and wouldn't automatically be able to see aranara fundamentally misunderstands his character and I just... First, see the point above--this is already a misunderstanding of how aranara work.

Second, am I just crazy, or is there absolutely nothing about having wonder and curiosity and passion for the world around you that is confined to children? Are we really going with "Having an imagination is for kids" as our takeaway from all this?

Alhaitham absolutely is passionate! He loves Sumeru as much as Nahida does! The mysteries of the world fascinate him, and he wants to be doing nothing more than ravenously learning and taking in new information at every opportunity!

But finding wonder and joy in life's mysteries is absolutely not restricted to children!

There's nothing inherently "childish" about loving fiction and the fantastical world of books, having a vivid imagination, being passionate about learning new things, and just plain out enjoying life. I'm sorry everyone else has apparently become such miserable adults that the only way they can believe Alhaitham finds joy in the world is by assuming he must have maintained a "child-like" inner nature. Please go read more books and touch more grass and maybe you too will experience adult wonder and joy???

Alhaitham's vivid curiosity about the world isn't remotely "child-like." It's based on the same sort of philosophical obsessions that drove Plato and Aristotle to redefine human thinking. To Alhaitham, Sumeru is likely much more vivid and beautiful and full of intrigue because he is now an adult who has the ability to freely think, formulate deeper questions, and the means to pursue research into his personal passions. His teaser trailer is literally about how he took the job of the Scribe because the Scribe records truth--not child-like faith in the magic of the world, but a constant unfilled yearning to get closer and closer to what is real.

If Alhaitham can see aranara, it's because he's earned the trust of the aranara by his deeds, not because he's secretly still an innocent, sweet baby boy deep down who has chosen not to grow up. (And like, if "traumatized people don't see aranara" is really what we're going with, are we actually arguing Kaveh is the only traumatized, "grew up too soon" one here? Did everyone just forget Alhaitham is an orphan with zero surviving family members left in the world and that he spent his entire childhood friendless, at least as far as we've been shown?)

Winning the trust of the aranara is something anyone could do if they show strong enough positive traits--just basic kindness, gentleness, and patience, which I promise you, adults can have.

At the very least, if we're going to suggest Alhaitham is child-like, can't we at least point to his actual childish behaviors, such as constantly pulling Kaveh's pigtails like a schoolboy with his first crush? Throwing hands with anyone who pisses him off too much? Being a jokester who continually sends Paimon books because she picked on him for his choice of reading materials once? At least y'all could have started there... Come on, now.

Phew, this really was a whole rant, but I just needed to get that off my chest. The Hoyo fandoms on twitter are so, so bad. Like man, don't claim people are mischaracterizing someone while not even knowing the lore yourself... Sorry if that sounds harsh, but...

[starspangledbatter]

Are Ragatha and Jax siblings? Not quite...

⭐️ Ah, the Jax and Ragatha sibling theory. I’ve been seeing this theory floating around since the early days of the fandom. Based on interactions, inspirations, and just plain speculation, this would become a fairly common theory within the fandom. Many people view Ragatha as a mature older sister to Jax's chaotic younger brother, which has remained a perfectly valid way of interpreting the two! ⭐️

⭐️ However, this theory would also welcome a lot of problems within the fandom too, such as backlash towards people who ship them. This would include harassment, cyberbullying, and a spread of misinformation in many "safe" TADC fandom spaces online. Once a wholesome way of viewing the two, this theory would unintentionally find its way into what a lot of fans interpreted as canon knowledge. ⭐️

⭐️ With this context provided, is the theory actually true? Are Ragatha and Jax planned to be canonical siblings? Based off of Gooseworx’s asks, we can find out! ⭐️

⭐️ Not so long ago, a fan asked if Kinger and Queenie had the possibility of being siblings. They were afraid that they might be shipping siblings instead of a married couple. Luckily, Gooseworx debunked this before it could find its way as a common theory. And knowing what we know now, Kinger and Queenie were actually a married couple, rather than a pair of siblings. This reveals her stance on questions like these, specifically ones that can misinform fans. If she did this with Kinger and Queenie, why wouldn't she do the same with the others, especially ones that were actually related? ⭐️

⭐️ Another user by the name of @ciderjacks asked a question similar to the latter's. They asked Gooseworx if the Raggedy Ann & Andy inspiration involving Jax and Ragatha actually defined their relationship. Instead of a confirmation being made, Gooseworx revealed it was solely just easter eggs, rather than anything to run with as canon. To some users who aren't aware, Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy are brother and sister! This implies that this same connection wouldn’t be paralleled with Ragatha and Jax. ⭐️

⭐️ And finally, we have the fanart folder from December! To clarify, Gooseworx has made it clear time and time again that no Digital Circus shipping pairs are canon. However, we should still take this into consideration, as it reveals the most about what we should know about this theory's credibility. If we take a look at this screenshot, there's certain pieces of art involving Ragatha and Jax, most importantly, the third one. It’s a fanart of Ragatha kissing Jax on the cheek, a shipping fanart no less. To add on, it was also made by @pinkboxy, a Digital Circus fan artist highly known for her Jax x Ragatha fanart. If these two were canonically related, I highly doubt Gooseworx would heart this image, let alone save it in a favorites folder. ⭐️

⭐️ So, with that out of the way, it's clear to say Ragatha and Jax are not canonically siblings. However, they are still free to be interpreted in any way we want, regardless of canon. Just keep in mind that neither interpretation (siblings, frenemies, couple, etc) is 100% canon or the “right way” of viewing them :). Be civil, stay safe, and have a nice day 💞💞💞 . Let’s this fandom a nice and safe place to be involved in! ⭐️

Feel free to share, reblog, or comment!

[polarisjisung]

tw: nth room talk— sa, cp, generally dark + heavy themes

I'm not going to go into detail about what the nth room is, but if you don't know and would like to this post is a good place to start. This is more a reminder about how much misinformation is really going around with this topic.

First things first, this is absolutely terrifying. These people are sons, brothers, fathers and husbands, the very people who you'd think would protect the women in their lives are the ones ruining them. It's sickening and it's hurtful. My heart goes out to the victims. Truly I wish nothing but the worst on these men.

With the whole 'list of celebrities' that's allegedly coming out tomorrow— I get that this is a difficult situation, especially to find out that someone you have admired for so long is nothing like the person you imagined them to be, but this is not about us.

If you're a fan you have the right to be sad, but it's the same whether this is about taeil, other idols, actors, celebrities, etc— there are victims at the centre of it all. The victims deserve justice and support. Not continuing to support the perpetrators will always be part of that.

So while you might think your fave would never, remember that you don't know these people.

When and if a confirmed list does come out, which it hasn't yet, please support the right people.

If, and I truly hope this isn't the case, but if you see the name of someone you support on that list, and you think "he would never" then the harsh truth is that you seriously need to revaluate your parasocial relationships. Because we do not know these people.

There's lists of suspected idols circulating tiktok/twitter already, which is disgusting. To accuse someone of something with no basis, of something so heinous and sickening is real fucking low just because you don't like them. Just because someone is morally flawed in one area/certain areas does not immediately mean that they're sick enough to commit these crimes. And by no means am I defending these idols because yes they've done some real fucked up things, but that does not equate to them being involved in sexual crimes.

You can have a hunch, intuition, or whatever it is you'd like to call it, but falsely accusing people of sa will never be okay. Keep these thoughts to yourself. Don't spread them by making videos, posts, or comments.

Thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families.

[snorlaxlovesme]

alright everybody, it's time we talked about Hostage. (buckle up because this is going to be long, but it'll be worth it)

season 2 episode 8 of Link Click was one of the most confounding episodes in the entire season while airing. starting with Lu Guang's insane boat crash/martial arts smackdown rescue of Cheng Xiaoshi and ending with Cheng Xiaoshi diving into a photo to possess Lu Guang to get answers for his actions, from start to finish it was a wild ass ride where we, the fandom, AND the characters spent the whole time questioning Lu Guang and his motives

and...puzzlingly... didn't really get an answers by the end of the season

Lu Guang wasn't granted any post-climax time to explain what happened that day from his perspective, and while Cheng Xiaoshi was possessing him he didn't get any answers because he literally WAS Lu Guang, just doing whatever the hell he thought he needed to do.

the thing about Hostage that has always felt extremely off to me, is that we DO get explanations for Lu Guang's actions during the episode, but they're from people wholly unqualified to be giving them.

Captain Xiao finds Lu Guang's phone, hidden in a folded towel, and concludes that Lu Guang had left them clues. Qiao Ling, after seeing that Lu Guang had taken a photo that night, came to the conclusion that Cheng Xiaoshi must have been the one possessing Lu Guang during his deranged rescue plan at the pier, seeing as Lu Guang wasn't an adept fighter at the dojo and he was acting extremely impulsive. She even goes so far to say, later in the episode, that Cheng Xiaoshi HAS to dive into the photo, because it's already happened, and needs to follow Lu Guang's words to not change the timeline.

all of these assumptions, to me, are horseshit

I refuse to listen to ANYTHING Captain Xiao says. one, because he simply does not know these kids and should not be making assumptions about them, and two he is in fact the worst cop in the world. and Qiao Ling, bless her heart, has only found out how their powers work mere DAYS ago and doesn't understand the nuances of them at all

so I'm gonna debunk all that nonsense and explain to you what Lu Guang's REAL actions were that night, and what was up with that cryptic photo he took

now you might be thinking, Kelly, you're not even starting in the right place, because those weren't Lu Guang's actions, they were always Cheng Xiaoshi's, just in Lu Guang's body!

FALSE. on two counts! we have evidence of Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi performing the act of escaping the hospital differently. Lu Guang does not use the kettle to break the window to distract the cops. we're not sure what he uses, but that kettle is still there.

Lu Guang also places his phone face down in the towel

while Cheng Xiaoshi places it faceup

so by the end of the episode we have literal, physical evidence that these two performed this timeline differently, and therefore it was not "Cheng Xiaoshi the whole time" like Qiao Ling tried to misinform us to believe. i also have another Big Brain post [x] that explains why Lu Guang being an impulsive, supposedly "good" fighter during that pier rescue scene are both in-character for him.

(and if we wanna get really nitpicky about how an injured Lu Guang could have raced across town in his condition, i simply believe that Lu Guang was smarter about it that Cheng Xiaoshi, and probably took a bus or cab. Cheng Xiaoshi, pure of heart and dumb of ass, ran because HE physically could while inhabiting Lu Guang's body. our injured catboy did not sprint across town while holding his organs in place)

so if we already have all this cold, hard evidence stating that Lu Guang really is THAT bitch and did all that shit on his own, what the hell is my problem? why can I not let this episode go?

BECAUSE I WANNA KNOW WHY LU GUANG TOOK THAT PHOTO

Captain Useless seems to think that Lu Guang took that photo as some sort of helpful clue left behind for the gang

but what, pray tell, was this photo supposed to tell us without someone with Lu Guang's powers there to interpret it? without Lu Guang to tell him what to do, Cheng Xiaoshi left to his own devices knows just as much as himself as he does possessing Lu Guang

and, the bigger question, is if this was supposed to be some sort of almighty clue for the gang, why did he not text this photo to either Qiao Ling or Cheng Xiaoshi before escaping the hospital? he took the time to text Qiao Ling the location of the boat, did he not? why not the photo too? seems like a crappy way to clue someone in, to take a photo and save it on your password protected phone that you just went out of your way to hide from plain sight

because that's the thing! after the season finale we discover that Lu Guang's password is literally a reminder of his dive, or even more specifically, a reminder of his trauma. we KNOW that he didn't share his password with Cheng Xiaoshi, he just just happened to figure it out on his own

so tell me how Lu Guang expected this trauma-password protected phone, with it's one singular picture, to get in the hands of Cheng Xiaoshi, hmm? riddle me THAT

so we've established by now that 1. Lu Guang's actions in the beginning of episode 8 were indeed his own and 2. that photo was never meant to be seen by Cheng Xiaoshi, who shouldn't have known Lu Guang's passcode

given the trauma-passcode, we have to believe that the only person ever meant to see this photo was Lu Guang. i've made ANOTHER post previously [x] stating that Lu Guang might have used his powers in a way we haven't known possible, by taking a photo and using his Blue Eyes White Dragon powers to see 12 hours into the immediate future

plausible, but not what i'm about to propose now.

because I think Lu Guang took that photo as a contingency plan

listen, the only person who had ANY credentials to theorize what Lu Guang was up to that night was his trusted partner. while Qiao Ling and Captain Xiao spouted their nonsense theories, Cheng Xiaoshi said the only smart thing that entire brainstorming session

and I think Cheng Xiaoshi was right. he wasn't wrong in assuming this photo was a Save Point of sorts, the only thing he was wrong about was who would be using it

the only other person in this show capable of diving into a photo, we find out during the finale, is Lu Guang

we also find out in the finale that powers are transferrable, and it looks like they transfer when the owner of that power dies in someone else's arms

Lu Guang took that photo that night NOT for Cheng Xiaoshi to find and use, but for LU GUANG himself to use. i believe Lu Guang firmly believed that Cheng Xiaoshi was to die that night, and he would do everything in his power to make sure he had a chance to change it again if he needed to.

that meant:

1.taking a photo on his phone as a Save Point.

2. hiding his phone in the hospital bathroom so it could not be taken from him or busted later in the night. and

3. racing to where he knew Cheng Xiaoshi would be, so he could either

4. a.) rescue him, or b.) ensure that during CXS's death, the diving power was transferred back to him so he could do the night over again.

Lu Guang took that photo as contingency plan to save Cheng Xiaoshi's life should he get killed that night.

but that plan was botched when Cheng Xiaoshi used it instead to possess Lu Guang, because each photo can only be used once.

which might also explain why Lu Guang was SO DISTRAUGHT when Cheng Xiaoshi was shot

they had deleted all their photos earlier that week to prevent the twins from possessing them remotely

that was the last photo Lu Guang had taken. the ONLY photo on his phone. if Cheng Xiaoshi died that night, there would have been no Save Point to return to

[matan4il]

I just wanted to thank you. There's so many people on Tumblr who think of Israelis as some white-colonizer-suppremassists, so many people who don't understand, are misinformed and think they are protecting a noble cause by supporting Israelis dying. I was going through the #Israel tag and it broke my heart. Seeing your posts made me feel a bit better.

Hi, lovely Nonnie! Thank you SO MUCH for this ask.

When I made this post about Jews not being white, a part of what I had in mind is how harmful it is to Jewish people when we're cast as what we're not, during a period of time when being white has become synonymous with being an oppressor.

This misrepresentation of Jewish identity and history, allows a very simplistic story to be told about us, a story that is (ironically) drawn crudely in black and white, where we're presented as the bad guys, when the reality is far more complex than that.

Jews are native to Israel. We're from the same region as Palestinians, we have the same range of skin tones as Palestinians. This binary view of 'white against brown people' is a lie. We can have a discussion about the conflict, how to get to a resolution that would be good for both Israelis and Palestinians (both populations deserve that), but any narrative that erases the fact that Jews are native to Israel, and that racial terms as created in the US are a misrepresentation of the history and rights of Jews in Israel, is inherently antisemitic.

I find it very telling that when you look at the Palestine tag, you mostly see anti-Israel (not even pro-Palestinian, just anti-Israel) posts, but then when you look at the Israel tag, you see the same thing. It says something about which side is listened to here, which side has the numbers, which side gets to tell its story. And the truth is, we can't resolve any conflict humanely without hearing both sides. But Tumblr has become toxic in terms of this subject, and too many people have bought into the idea of Jews as oppressors, and for that reason, won't even listen to Jewish people. From there, the road to justifying the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust is short.

Tumblr has become a place where Jews (who aren't of the anti-Zionist minority) are scared to speak, and those who do speak, get harassed, get hate and get their voices drowned out.

So I am really glad if I can deliver something of the voices of Jewish people, and that you've found solace in my updates. Thank YOU for the kind message, it means a lot! I'll keep doing the best I can, and I hope my blog can continue to make you feel better, and for it to be a safe place for you. xoxox

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[themandjetofra]

The Nejeru and the Presidential Election in America

Hey everyone, I know I’ve been a bit dead recently. Sorry about that! I haven’t had much new art to share lately, though I’m hoping to work on a drawing of Ammut sometime this weekend. Honestly, I think I’m done trying to stick with weird blog format. It just feels too forced and doesn’t align with what I want this space to be lol.

Im not going to give you the "Oh, not to get political, but..." stuff here. Yes, yes to get political. I am going to get political because, frankly, this is my blog, my space, and I can express my thoughts freely. If you don’t fw with that, you’re more than welcome to leave. I genuinely can’t stand Trump supporters. This isn't the place for you.

Yes, both Trump and Kamala have massive flaws, but let’s face it, American presidential elections have always been choosing between two evils. But the fact that an actual felon managed to win just blows my mind. It’s appalling to think that people are willing to overlook his blatant disrespect toward women and the LGBTQ community (both of which I’m a part of). Sure I might lose my rights, but at least gas will be cheaper... /s

This election has been a heavy blow to me, and honestly my soul. I’ve been pouring my heart into prayers and spells, asking the Nejeru for guidance. And yeah, I’ll admit, it stung a lot when it felt like my prayers fell on deaf ears to them. I’ve spoken to others in my faith and even folks who follow other ancient pantheons, and I’m not alone in feeling upset and betrayed.

So, I had to take a step back. I needed to breathe, to distance myself from everything—my work, my faith. But that doesn’t mean I lost my belief in the Nejeru. They’ve been there for me countless times, and I know that. Instead of letting my frustration consume me, I chose to reflect on it. Why couldn’t they intervene this time? Or, maybe, why wouldn’t they? And after some time to think, I eventually reconnected with my faith.

One thing I know is that we need to see the Nejeru in the context of their origins— Ancient Egypt. If you didn’t know, every Pharaoh was essentially a dictator. Even under divine guidance, bad things still happened. Some years, the Nile didn’t flood. Sometimes, things just went wrong. The Nejeru aren’t like the God of Christianity or Catholicism. They’re not “all-powerful.” If they were, they wouldn’t need a pantheon of over a hundred gods to manage different forces. They’re incredibly powerful, yes, but there are limits to what they can influence.

A major factor is the concept of free will, something that was deeply important to the Nejeru. They believed in allowing humans to make their own choices, to live their lives as they wished, even with rules in place. As Ra said in the Coffin Texts (1130): "I made every man like his fellow; and I did not command that they do wrong. It is their hearts that disobey what I have said. This is one of the deeds."

No god controls our souls. They don’t dictate our choices. Sure, they may judge us after death, but what we do in this life is entirely up to us. I highly recommend checking out “The Dispute of a Man with His Ba”, a translated story that implies much about free will in Ancient Egypt. When it comes to elections, that is free will. The Nejeru aren’t going to intervene in a democratic process where individuals are making their own choices. Whether people are misinformed or not, it’s still their decision. The outcome, as frustrating as it might be, is not something that the Nejeru can or should control. Doing so would mean infringing on the free will of millions of people. So, please, do not put the blame on the Nejeru. They’re not responsible for the choices people make. But we can lean on them for guidance through these hard times. Take care of each other. Take care of yourselves, check in on your friends, and remember, you are not a burden to anyone. Let’s focus on how we can support one another through this. Sending love and strength to you all.

- spheenx

💗

[badboychaser]

About Morro

I think it goes without saying that most people favor fictional characters based on appearance, personality, and theoretically personalized life experiences.

There are times when someone you know will like a fictional character and for the life of you you can never figure out why or how.

There are millions of people in the world and no one will see a character EXACTLY how you see them. People may partake in shared headcanons or similar theories about certain aspects of a characters deposition; however people will NEVER see eye to eye about media.

The recent backlash I’ve seen about Morro and/or Morro fans lately have absolutely put me in a place of sorrow. I’d like to open up a discussion on my thoughts about the subject as someone who has loved this character for a couple of years now.

Even though I have been a fan of Morro for many years that does not make me knowledgeable or in the right about anything regarding his character as same goes for recent fans of his character. Many of his fans (like myself) are older even so many of his fans are younger as well (13-16). Someone at my age has grown up differently in life opposed to someone that is now 14 and we will not see fictional characters in the same way ever.

That being said; while it’s not right for people to be homophobic (TikTok) or loathe Euphrasia (Sexism) I think we have to understand that some people are just much younger. It’s never an excuse to be hateful or discriminatory but at the very least I hope everyone can understand or remember a time when they were misinformed or estranged with a particular concept due to a younger mindset and living situation. To the people whom are older and feel insensitive to situations such as these I only hope in the future something will change for you as change and learning has to be willed by the user and truthful from the heart.

I know having a written post about this seems a bit silly but as someone who has dedicated a few years of my life to Ninjago and certain characters within the series I believe it would be mistaken of me to not bring attention to the situation.

Please don’t hate someone because of a certain character they like or a character they most associated with- instead please observe someone based on their real character as you would meeting someone in life.

I’ve gotten harassment because of my feelings about Morro as well as people whom I know. I would hate to be judge and associated in a group because of someone I don’t know said something somewhere on the internet.

[blu193]

My take on Shroomy's family tree

(WARNING: I LOVE THINKING FAR TOO HARD ON SILLY SHOWS AND GAMES I ENJOY, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK)

Shroomy: our loveable mushroom man whose both a Boy Scout and a former Demon Slayer(to be debated if Anti-Shroomy returns PLEASE SMG4 HOW IS HE) that stole our hearts. What is this mushroom man's family like? How is he the only known mushroom man to have his face on the mushroom CAP instead of the STEM like everybody else? Where is the rest of his family?

Well, let's go over what we DO know about this lovely mushroom's family:

Lady Alcina Dimitrescu eventually divorces Doomguy in the episode: "SMG4: She's Back!" at timestamp 5:17 so by some technicality she is now Shroomy's Ex-Aunt and the Dimitrescu sisters his Ex-cousins if we are go off the idea Doomguy didn't want the trio in the divorce since he was too busy hanging out and training with Isabelle to care about them, much less Shroomy.

Even WHEELER, HIS OWN FREAKING GRANDPA could care less about him, with two occasions of not bothering to acknowledge his existance in "SMG4: Mario Gets His PINGAS Stuck In Car Door" at timestamps 3:20 and 4:52 (the latter one is him LITTERALY RUNNING HIS WHEELCHAIR INTO HIS FACE WHAT)

Aside from that, we've got nothing family-wise to Shroomy...

But what about "SMG4: Stupid Mario Odyssey 2" and the Luncheon Kingdom? Shroomy states the reason why he's there in the episode is to "visit family" at timestamp 5:27. So what about them? Odds are they might've been eaten in Mario's rampage on the place but what if they weren't? These unknown Luncheon Kingdom family members may explain my main question about our beloved mushroom man:

WHY THE HECC IS SHROOMY'S FACE ON THE CAP INSTEAD OF THE STEM LIKE EVERY OTHER MUSHROOM-HUMANOID CHARACTER KNOWN IN THE SMG4 SERIES???

Toads of the Super Mario Series? on the STEM. Mushrooms of Super Mario Series? on the STEM. HECC I BET YOU A WHOLE COOKIE TO LOOK UP "chibi mushroom" RIGHT NOW AND FIND AN IMAGE WITH THE FACE ON THE CAP. (you don't actually HAVE to I can't force you to do anything because that would be mean. But my point stands.)

SHROOMY IS THE ONLY KNOWN MUSHROOM MAN WITH HIS FACE ON THE CAP. Which means the odds are that it's a recessive gene. And if it's a RECESSIVE GENE... IT HAS TO BE A BIG PART OF ONE SIDES GENERATIONAL DNA STUFF!

It's most likely not Wheeler's side of the family, given he has the dominant gene of "face on the stem" and Doomguy I'm willing to bet is adopted given that he is a full on human in a family of mushroom people with significant skill in weaponry and destruction, demon or otherwise.

Which makes the possibility of it being from the other side still living in the Luncheon Kingdom more likely to have the many mushrooms with faces on the caps instead of stems.

So, my attempt on a take of Shroomy's family is this:

That's all I got, if you've got any theories/other ideas/point out inconsistencies or misinformation, let me know! Thank you for reading my ramble.^^

[damnfandomproblems]

I think one issue with the AI debate (which is apparent with this exchange) is that even if their heart is ultimately in the right place, some anti-AI folks would prefer to insult and scold rather than to educate.

I'm currently anti-AI myself, though about a year ago when it was just starting to blow up I was somewhere between pro and neutral to AI, because the way a lot of anti-AI arguments were presented just didn't make much sense to me at the time.

There was a lot of "its ugly!!" which is, for one thing, is EXTREMELY objective, and from my perspective, not always true. There was a lot that I found interesting or even beautiful. (One thing I still think even today, despite my disillusionment with AI is that it's the closest thing I've ever seen that accurately represents the real uncanniness of dreaming, although this is usually unintentional.)

I didn't like the "it's bad because it doesn't MEAN anything!" or some out-there woo-woo "it wasn't Created with the Divine and Blessed Soul of the Human Spirit" type stuff, because a part of what art is about is what meaning the viewer brings to it. Maybe the computer doesn't understand what symbolism is, but I could still find it whether it was meant to be there or not, and in this way, something that "no one made" is elevated to something a little bit higher.

And while I was more convinced by the argument of theft of individuals art, I still thought, "well, it's not like people are going to pass it off as their own creation! it's more of a starting off point, like an inspiration board! of course people are going to CHANGE it and actually make it their own, and that's a transformative work!" And this final point got proven wrong very, VERY quickly, because people WERE releasing clearly jacked-up images as "their own creations" with no regard to the artists whose work it came from. All it did was make people extremely lazy, because look at all the AI images with screwed-up text, the part that would be the EASIEST thing of all to fix, no artistic skill required, just ten seconds in any editing program and the ability to give half a shit. People either didn't even notice they were posting absolute nonsense, or didn't care, because they thought no one else would.

And not just people, but businesses, corporations. In such a short time, people's standards for quality control has dipped below zero. Quantity over quality, now half of any Google Image search is AI. When misinformation gets passed along faster than ever and no one ever thinks to question it, let's just create misinformation at an exponential rate! Now every website has its own AI feature it wants you to try, phones have AI generators built in, everyone is racing to capitalize off a technology we haven't even figured out ethically.

And then, most important of all, is the environmental impact. Like yeah, you might not feel like you're doing art theft with your character AI chats, since you keep it to yourself and don't profit from it. But if they have to cut down a tree every time you want to pretend to talk to your blorbos, isn't it just easier to open up your Notes app?

I don't think AI will never work, I think someday someone will be able to figure out a compromise that doesn't steal artists work and doesn't overheat the planet, where it actually can be a tool artists enjoy using instead of something to replacing artists entirely. But I don't believe that day will come very soon, when potential for quick profit reigns over all else.

Posting as a response to a previous problem.

[serendertothesquad]

Seren's Studies: Odd Squad UK -- "Odd Ones In" Episode Followup, Part 1

May the days of the whiteness of the Big O's desk be forever remembered in favor of this thing that flashbanged me and made me nearly drop my glasses.

No, guys, seriously. I am looking at this thing. It is floating. Why is it floating.

But enough whining. It's October 1st and that means Odd Squad UK has officially premiered! With it, we get a bunch of episodes that have been graciously pulled by a friend, @personinthepalace. Many thanks goes to them! (And all the work they've had to do throwing them up in other places where YouTube failed.)

For those unfamiliar with how these work, it's pretty standard: I watch the episode, plop screenshots into this post, and react accordingly in text form. Sadly, until I can get a new laptop and some privacy, Seren Reacts videos will be on hold.

So join me below the break for screaming, crying, and much, much asking of "did I hear that right", "what did they say?" and "hi doctor, I might need hearing aids".

(This will also be Part 1, due to Tumblr's 30-photo limit. I can amass as much as 50-120 screenshots for a single episode, so this will be broken into many parts. To find them all, peruse the #seren's studies tag!)

(Oh, and spoilers. Don't read this, or any of the other parts, unless you've seen the episode in full.)

With huge props to those who guessed Captain O would be doing the intro, in line with how Oprah used to do it in the past in order to not spoil new characters.

It's funny because from what I've seen, Captain O goes out onto the field a lot more and doesn't just play the role of Ms. Exposition. I like that change!

I'm...well...okay, maybe this doesn't surprise me given how Ozzie was literally in the first promo picture...but sure. Fine. I dig it.

Osgood has his own cookbook, and quite frankly, I'm just mad they didn't give Oksana one. You're telling me the girl cuts food with diamonds and she doesn't have her own cookbook? Piss off the roof and pray it rains.

"I'm in charge of an organization of kids like these...but...not these..."

OH MY GYAHD THEY BROUGHT BACK THE BIT FROM SEASON 3 ONLY IT'S LESS SPECIAL NOW.

Look, I was there when people went nuts over Oprah bringing all six main characters (at the time) back for a cameo in the intro. I went nuts. It was beautiful!

This just doesn't hit the same. It tried to aim for my heart and instead got me in the nose.

...I still laughed, though.

Most of the stuff in here is taken from the trailer, but there is some new stuff here too, like Captain O giving a big "fuck you" to what I have to assume is a construction worker seeking help on a nearby project.

...Look, I'm a dumb lil' American. You are bound to get fed misinformation up the wazoo. I am bound to not use Google because I am allowed not to and also I am lazy and tired. Don't ask me how shit works.

Ah yes, I see that, in addition to upgrading the special effects used for exiting the tubes, they also upgraded the special effects and animation used for riding the tubes themselves.

Once again, I will point to "Down the Tubes" for a comparison and ask you which one looks better to you. My vote is down easy.

This is a wooden ship and they have couch cushions.

WE ARE NOT ON A LUXURY PRINCESS CRUISE THIS IS A CAPITAL SIN PREPARE FOR DESTRUC-

My God, it's like they saw Season 3, saw people hated it, and upped the ante more than if literally anyone else sane bought Twitter from Elon.

The fact that I could probably tell you what episodes these bits all came from is terrifying. Terrifying still, I'd only get half wrong.

*deep inhale*

Two things: who thought this was a good idea, AND WHO THE FUCK THOUGHT HAVING AN OFFICE BEHIND A WATERFALL WAS A GOOD IDEA.

Caves behind waterfalls are where villains run off to. Where treasure is buried. It's not- oh my God...oh...my God.

Okay, legally, you can't have finger guns in the UK, so Captain O is committing a crime AND GET YOUR KEYS AWAY FROM MY CAR THAT I SPENT THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS FIXING UP IT IS A JOKE. A JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-

From a height angle, this is as jarring as Omar and Oneta up against Maine Mr. O.

Back then, when there was the followup for "The Void",there was a joke that he could probably be their little sibling. Like, little little. Like "generation gap" little.

The latter most certainly holds true here.

OH THANK GOD THEY DIDN'T BRITISH-FY THE LOGO. THANK YOU JESUS. BAD ENOUGH I GOT FLASHBANGED ONCE YOU WANT IT TO HAPPEN AGAIN?????

But also, rest in pieces to the creator credits appearing here. Usually that only happens when the creators have done some egregious thing and episodes are edited to remove their name in most capacities. (And I'm staring The Loud House down with the fury of a thousand suns. You are better off not knowing.)

Here...Tim and Adam have done nothing egregious, but it's still jarring to not see their names up here. They're not showrunners, but give the men some credit, damn it!

I gotta say, one second in and I'm already digging this episode. Most Precure episodes I watch don't even get that far enough in to make me say "wow!"

But oh man is this Tube Lobby crazy retro. I mean if the film reels back there didn't give it away...

And your writer for this episode! Mark is basically a pioneer within the franchise, having written some fantastic episodes that, if I listed them all, would derail the entire followup. He's got strong writing chops and I can't wait to see what he does with this one. Basically, if you see his name pop up, you know shit's gonna be real good.

And your...ah...producer. I don't think we've ever seen a producer credit on here before. The name's not familiar, so I'll assume she's one of the British staff and hope she can work her magic better than 70% of Season 3's writers.

Not even past the first ten seconds yet and already I've spotted my first criticism: the audio balancing.

I went into the gadget competition video thinking it would be fixed. Much to my dismay, it has not, and that means my eardrum hairs will have to suffer for a good 22 minutes.

...

Scratch that and make it 12 episodes' worth.

To my body, I am so sorry in advance.

And your director for this episode. This guy had an interview regarding references in Odd Squad UK that I unfortunately never found, even after asking about it and spreading the word around. Quite a shame, but now that the show's here, I can go play Seven Degrees of Kevin Bacon: Delusion Edition and cry profusely.

Honestly, as much as I want to be a sour realist and say that no one is this excited walking into work...I'm more focused on the planet/glowing Perplexus maze ball/good God what is that Seymour.

The guy has his own cheer team waiting for him when he comes into the bullpen, and either this is some weird-ass Department of Help perk or this is the happiest Odd Squad precinct I have ever seen in 10 years.

See, Otto was a happy guy. Olympia was a happy gal. Omar was a happy guy. Where are their cheerleading teams, hehh?? Where are their teams?!

*spits out Pepsi at such an insanely fast speed it beats Comcast by ten thousand miles*

THEY HAVE AN AGENT WITH DOWN SYNDROME?!?!?!

IT TOOK THEM

10 YEARS

TO HAVE AN AGENT

WITH DOWN SYNDROME?!?!?!?!?!

...Okay look, I had a friend with cerebral palsy and from watching this bit repeatedly I don't think this agent has it...

BUT THEY PUT IN AN AGENT WITH DOWN SYNDROME ALL THE SAME AWWWWWWWWWW HNNNNNNNNNNGH MY HEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHT

I'm not even mad they did that before a canonically autistic agent. I'm not mad. I'm not mad it exists. I'm not mad they could have done this 10 years ago and given a raspberry and a "fuck you" to all the ableist critics. How the fuck do you expect my ass to get mad at this? I'm not fucking barbaric, sweet Jesus Christ.

Only a minute in and this is by far one of the best things of the episode, right here. I can't gush about this enough. You ask me why I love this franchise, and this is one of the reasons.

"I work in the Department of Help. It's my job."

Thank you, Ozzie, but I didn't spend a year waiting to get slammed face-first with exposition. I could teach a college class on this entire show/season at what was my dream college before nu monies crushed that.

Just to note: the last time we ever saw a PA system used by a Director was -- and correct me if I'm wrong -- Oprah in "The Jackies", a good 10 years ago.

The fact it's become a mainstay for Captain O and her precinct is a lovely bit of continuity, if unintentional.

I remember seeing part of this set a long time ago in a BTS photo. Nice to see another angle of it!

I like the seafaring stuff in here too. Scuba helmet, what looks to be maps of islands, a telescope...the only funny thing is that Ozzie staring down Captain O here is the equivalent of Otis staring down Orson aaaaaaaaand I can't get that out of my head now. Beautiful. Thank you.

As if the Oona image Easter egg wasn't enough, they have to go and reference toast again?

I'm not even mad, this literal humor is on-brand and hilarious, but this being the 10th anniversary series, it's funny they choose to reference this and not Sheila.

...Or maybe they will reference Sheila later. She does have that Bizarre Brigade show...

It's probably unintentional on Alexander Shaw's part, but this line here sounds so artificial it's like maybe, just maybe, he has something to do with it.

...

MA GET MY TINFOIL HAT I'M GOIN' OUTSIDE-

"I'll be brief: I have no idea why all this is happening."

Very few kids shows can sell a character to me and make me slam my wallet chock-full of bills down on a single line, but Odd Squad UK did it with Onom and I have no regrets.

Is...hold on, is this is a whole-ass meeting Captain O's having in here? It's not just Ozzie, Onom and Orwell?

Either I'm trippin' like hell or this is the live-action equivalent of needing background characters to fill up spaces in a scene.

And just like that, 13 chances for name-drops of past "living legend" agents were shot with bullets going into all the crucial arteries in the bodies.

How does he know about Orli? Who the fuck knows! He's got a better chance of knowing about the 13 "living legend" agents in question than some girl working behind a goddamn waterfall!!

You ever watch Adult Swim and it cuts right from the show to an ident scene?

That's what this is. Only there's no ident, it's mid-episode, and it's so sudden that it's like half of the ASMR memes on the Internet that jumpscare you.

(On to Part 2!)

[krikeymate]

Abandon Ship - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: abandon everything you know

Samantha – Sam – Carpenter shuffles back into town heavily cloaked and with her face obscured. She doesn’t need to hide, but it’s probably better this way. They’re larger than the average community on this side of the mainland, and yet everyone still seems to know everybody. Sam’s not sure how, barely able to recall a handful of names that aren’t people you need to avoid and people you can exploit. Tara probably knows everyone, the sweet girl that she is, always ready to stop and chat, to help, to lend a hand – even to those who most certainly don’t deserve it.

The thought of her sister brings a warmth to Sam’s chest. That’s why she’s here, why she keeps coming back to the place that’s only ever hurt her, scorned her, demanded more of her than she could ever give. Everything she does is for her sister, to give her a better life. One away from here, one day. One away from their mother and the lamentable legacy she’s left them. It’s the thought of the town pariah that is her mother that has her sitting in a tavern choking on a piss-poor beer instead of back home hugging her sister tight.

She can’t face her mother sober. Not after their last conversation 3 months prior.

The job out west had been pre-arranged, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Her mother had been pushing at her to get married. 20 and without a suitor in sight was a disgrace, apparently. Her mother is certainly one to talk, 18 and fucking some passing sailor, her own enamoured husband waiting for her at home. It got out, of course. There are no secrets in this place. The port town of Modesto is a shameless hub of gossip and misinformation, and the truth too, for a price.

Had she not come home pregnant, perhaps it could have been discounted as mere whispers on the wind, simple jealousy from others less fortunate, for her husband was of noble stock, highly sought after and of a gentle nature to boot. A man who marries for love, they say, takes unfaithfulness like a knife to the heart. And he had loved her so very dearly.

Nathanial Arden was not a cruel man, but he would not raise a child that was not his, not one conceived after their oaths had been spoken. What man would, what man could stand for this betrayal?

He left her a sum and the house, a far kinder fate than she was owed, but she was stripped of the name she had so recently taken, all claims and vows forsworn.

Christina had enjoyed being the talk of the town, and now she was destined to remain that way, awe and curiosity shifting to scorn and mocking. She buries her head in the sand, or rather, the bottom of a bottle, while her daughters take the burden of her name and her choices. It’s no easy thing, to grow up under the knowledge that your mother is considered a cautionary tale, for the world to know you as a fatherless bastard. Sam has always done her best to protect her little sister from this truth and the cruelty of others, as much as she is able. Sometimes that protection takes the form of a fistfight on your way out of town for a seasonal job elsewhere, to give the people something to talk about, something to focus on. If their eyes are on Sam, they aren’t on her sister.

Eying the man across the room whose nose she broke months ago – now far too crooked, she pulls at her hood to better cover her face. No, it wouldn’t do to be recognised right now at all.

Sam takes another sip of her drink, the sour taste making her wince. She does her best to tune out all the chatter around her and focus on her own thoughts, it’s a useless endeavour however.

“Did’ya hear? Christina’s gon’ and cleared ‘er debt! Gave Ol’ Bailey’s Master Richie somethin’ ‘e couldn’t refuse—”

Her mother’s name is oft on people’s lips here and it’s the last thing she wants to listen to, but to hear it uttered alongside Richie’s – ugh – is peculiar, and of immediate interest. She has no choice but to listen.

” – An’ Young Master Richie is well pleased, ‘is father gave ‘im a new name an’ all,” speaks a dock worker to another at an opposing table. “But why the Carpenter girl? Surely, he could ‘ave his pick of the litter, so ta speak. No need to stoop so low,” his better-spoken companion responds. “Oh ay, per’aps, ’tween you an’ me, I ‘ear it’s abou’ revenge. Wants the girl ta fuck over ‘er sister, afta she, ya know.”

The two men share a laugh, clanking their tankards together, as Sam sits there seething, fingers white from their grip on her own cup. Her mind is racing, trying to make sense of their words. Her mother, Richie, Tara, what is—

“ – Me an’ the lads’ll be collectin ‘er in the mornin, the muvers got ‘er all locked up tight. ‘E wants the weddin’ quick, the sister’s due back ‘fore the end of the month. An-”

Sam stands, slamming the tankard down on the table. Her blood is boiling from within, the situation becoming all too clear. She storms from the room, cloak billowing and hood blowing back from the speed of her walk, oblivious to the heads turned her way as she flings the door open, narrowly missing another, and begins to head home.

Her mother has some explaining to do.

~

Sam bursts into the family home calling out for her mother. The walk had done little to quell her anger over the words she had overheard. She notes in the back of her head that the door was unlocked. Her mother never locks the damn thing, too drunk to even consider it most of the time, but Tara does. Sam had raised her to be careful, and that includes locking the fucking doors.

“Mother!” she yells out again, stalking through the rooms, searching. Empty. Empty. Empty. Her frustration only grows. She turns to head up the stairs, taking them two at a time, and finds herself smacking into Tara’s door when the handle doesn’t turn as expected.

“Tara?”

“Sam?”

Her sister sounds nervous, uncertain, scared. Sam aches to comfort her, to fix whatever is happening. “Tara, open the door,” she demands, wiggling the handle like it will suddenly give way.

“I can’t.” It comes out as nothing more than a muffled whimper from behind the wood. “Mom locked it, sh- she-” Tara’s words are cut off with a sob.

“Hey, it’s ok, just hold on for a minute.” Sam breathes deep, palm to the door. She needs to remain calm for her sister, no matter how much her insides are twisting. “I’ve got this, I’ve got you.”

Sam heads for her own room, untouched since she saw it last and now covered in a fine layer of dust. She walks to her bedside and kneels down, wrenching open the bottom drawer of the adjacent cabinet. She pulls its contents out of the way, reaching blindly for the back until her nails meet a groove in the wood. She digs her nail in, pulling it up until her fingers can reach underneath to grasp at the false bottom and remove it.

Inside the secret compartment is an assortment of notes, a bag of coins, a ring of keys, and a motley of other small items.

She grabs the keys – long since squirrelled away from her mother, just in case – and goes to stand again. She pauses and grabs the bag of coins, stuffing them into her pocket and already beginning to suspect the worst might come to pass.

The key has barely turned in the lock when Sam’s barrelled over by her sister, back thumping against the hallway wall. Tara clings to her waist, face buried in the folds of her cloak. “Sam,” she cries, “please don’t let her do this, I don’t want to marry him!”

Sam wraps her sister up tight in her arms. “You won’t. I won’t let it happen. I promise.” Sam pushes her sister away gently, kneeling down and cupping her face. She wipes away her tears and brushes back her hair. “Go get–”

They’re disturbed by a thud from downstairs as the front door is kicked open.

“Find them. I won’t have my bride disappearing before my wedding.”

The whiny tone of Richie Bailey fills the air, and the sound of half a dozen footsteps following his order tells them he’s not alone.

Sam mouths at Tara to move, pushing her back into her room. Sam follows close behind, grabbing the key from the lock and replacing it on the other side to lock them inside. When Sam turns around, it’s to the sight of her sister shaking, jaw clenched around her hand to hold back the whimpers she wants to release. Sam doesn’t think she can hate another as much as she hates her mother, but Richie Bailey comes pretty damn close.

The door behind Sam bangs as a fist smacks against it.

“I know you’re here Samantha, you were seen.” Sam doesn’t know how she ever put up with this smarmy asshole for so long, ashamed to have history with him at all. A history that is coming back to punish her sister. “The contract has been signed, she’s mine fair and square. There’s no point fighting it dear.”

Sam grabs a cloak from Tara’s closet as Richie grouses, clasping it around her sister’s neck and pulling open the window. It’s no accident that there’s a trellis beneath it, nailed to the outer wall. Sam always knew a day like this would come. She thought she would have a few more years left at least however, cursing her mother’s selfishness. Her sister is not some cattle to be sold.

She nudges Tara towards the window, nodding. Her sister gets the message, and doesn’t think twice before ambling over the sill and down the trellis despite the tears in her eyes and the way her hands shake. Her sister has always been brave. No doubt she would have married Richie without a fight, been his compliant little wife – though she knows Richie would have been more than delighted if Tara was dragged to the alter kicking and screaming – and stayed quiet no matter how much she was suffering inside. But that’s what Sam is here for, to protect her little sister, to keep her safe and defend her freedom from those who would take it from her.

~

The gates out of town are blocked, men in black and white – the Bailey colours – pad out the guardsmen patrolling the area. No doubt they’ve been ordered to apprehend them, feeding the officers lies, selling them enticing fabricated charges to ensure their capture, or maybe they simply deposited coin straight into their pockets. Which matters little, the end result is the same.

Sam briefly ponders the cliffs. They’re navigable enough, but risky, and Sam knows she wouldn’t want her sister traversing them even if the sun hadn’t already set. Her stomach begins to sink when she gets the whiff of salt in the air and her eyes are drawn to the docks.

No.  

They can’t.

Can they?

The docks are owned by the Bailey’s, it’s their domain. It will be full of their own men. Yet there’s something pulling her towards it.

Sam tugs on Tara’s hand in hers. She doesn’t have to look back at her to know what she’s thinking. She risks stopping anyway, putting a hand on her sister’s shoulder and meeting her eyes. “Do you trust me?”

Tara looks up at her so softly, “of course.”

The response makes Sam smile, and she jerks at the hood on Tara’s head, pulling it down further. “Great, we’re heading for the docks. We’ll stow away on a boat.” Sam tries to sound confident in her words, but the truth is that they sound as insane out loud as they did in her head. There’s something inside of her telling her to get to the sea.

She almost wishes Tara would object.

She doesn’t.

~

They stick to the shadows as they enter the docks. It’s a busy environment, people everywhere, appearing and disappearing through the evening mist, and it makes Sam grip her sister’s hand tighter and pull her even closer.

Her eyes rove over the scene. She feels stupid. She’s put them in such a risky situation, it’s like she wants to get them caught. Why even bother running if they’re going to run straight back into the lion’s den?

A caw from above snaps her out of her spiralling. Sam follows the bird with her eyes, watching as it lands on a boat not far from where they stand hidden.

Huh.

The boat has seen better days, as has its crew, which appears to have half as many men as it should, given the size of the large fishing vessel. That’s the one, her heart sings, her feet stepping forward before she’s even realised it.

“Sam,” Tara whispers frantically, desperate to know what they’re doing. Sam hushes her, throwing her arm around her sister’s shoulder and walking them confidently past the sea-worn men wrestling with heavy cargo. They pass by unnoticed.

She ducks her head as they step onto the boat to make herself smaller, and quickly ushers Tara down into the cargo hold.

Once they’re safely tucked between boxes and hidden from view, with her sister wrapped in her arms, Sam allows herself to finally breathe.

“What happens if they catch us,” Tara asks nervously, head tucked under Sam’s chin. “We’ll be fine,” she reassures her, hand rubbing up and down her back to comfort her. “These men are on their last legs, desperate, they won’t turn away working hands.” Sam isn’t sure where this confidence, or the knowledge, is coming from, but somehow, she knows it to be true.

The boat begins to rock as it leaves the dock, and for the first time in a long time, Sam feels safe.

[lycan-subscribe]

hi! I saw your post about Springfield and while I appreciate where you heart is, I would really appreciate if you did not say things like we have crumbling infranstrucre and no public transportation (we still have public bussing) and no education (many Springfield kids go on to very good colleges bc of the education they got here or even go to our city's university or community college). We have had students recently get admitted to Ivy League schools. We have so many programs for students to earn college credit while in high school.

Springfield isn't the best city around but there's been a lot of good things happening, and a lot of the city is a lot better off than it was when I was kid. Most of all, a lot of us are not taking kindly to other people speaking on our behalf. We're tired of people not from Springfield talking about us. Your heart was in the right place, and I appreciate what you did. But please do not make it sound like we're living in some destitute city. All my life I have heard from people outside of Springfield asking me if I'm scared to live here, etc. bc of the stereotypes that every inch of us is crumbling buildings and drug addicts and gang violence.

We have: beautiful murals by local artists, teachers who care about all their students, a really good public library system, thriving local businesses. There's a lot of things not going well in Springfield, but please don't speak for us.

i appreciate you starting a respectful discussion about this, i really do. looking back on what i wrote, i do think i came off as dismissive of the city as a whole in a way i didn’t intend.

i’ve been ruminating on what i said last night and i do think i could’ve and should’ve worded some things better and made my intentions a little more clear - i don’t want to speak for the city, as my experience with it is colored by the fact that i don’t live there. i meant only to speak for my experience with it in an extremely condensed manner but in doing so i think i left out some crucial context.

you’re right, it is better in a lot of ways than it used to be! i’ve noticed more art, more local businesses (especially the restaurants!!) and snyder park in particular is absolutely beautiful - my aunt and uncle are actually master gardeners that help take care of the gardens there. so i know there is beauty, both in the physical landscape and in the people living in it, in springfield that is absolutely worth talking about and celebrating and i really should’ve brought more attention to that.

i also wanna make something else clear: i don’t think springfield is uniquely affected by propaganda and racist/right wing rhetoric. my city (which is a hop skip and a jump away) has been affected by it too, and long before the haitian immigrants began to settle in springfield. this whole /country/ is seeped in it, especially right now, especially in places like the ohio/the midwest (hello rust belt).

i think i was just angry. angry that somewhere so close to my hometown was making national news in the worst possible way, angry that i had to speak out to my coworkers who were making jokes about it, angry that the problems springfield DOES have are going ignored because of targeted misinformation and corrupt politicians. i’m sorry i misrepresented the city as a whole, i really am - but i do want it to be known that my intent wasn’t to trash springfield or make it sound like there’s nothing there worth making note of. there is! it is a diverse city and there are so many people working to make it a better place. that’s worth celebrating. i just want people to understand that the blatant racism and bigotry being touted by some of the people who live there didn’t spring up overnight, and i wanted to emphasize the thing that make people more susceptible to propaganda: a sense of disenfranchisement.

i still don’t know if i’m getting my point across entirely effectively but i want you to know: i’m sorry, truly, for letting my anger and frustration turn into boiling down a very complex and multi-faceted issue down to a few paragraphs of text. springfield is worth fighting for, for the refugees and the city natives both.